Jabu - Oceanside Spider House

Single

20 Aug

Bristol's vibrant community is always one of the premier places to find talent and some of the more experimental and exciting creatives in the UK. In 2010, one of the most celebrated amalgamations of minds came together under the banner of Young Echo. What started as an online radio broadcast quickly shifted into promoting events and running labels. The latest in a long line of out-there productions from the Young Echo collective sees Jabu, comprised of Alex Randall, Amos Childs and Jasmine Butt, team up with clarinet from Memotone on Oceanside Spider House.

This wispy, dream-inducing record seduces audiences into a never-neverland of glacial dubs and slowly evolving textures, much like their last album, Sweet Company. Jabu slowly opens their world from the first colossal crash cymbal on the 'Oceanside Spider House'. It's stark and cold as the lonely percussion cracks and rumbles around space. The record takes much of its inspiration from slower downtempo music, combining those elements with effects-driven textures that swallow most of the instrumentation's intricacies. What's left over are cavernous swells accented with minute melody, making the piece sound even larger. The accompanying vocals via Jasmine Butt sound solitary but curious, which gives this uncanny feeling like you're the titular character in a fantasy world too enchanted to be as fearful as you most likely should be.

This sentiment of wonder within an empty world continues to the second track. 'Final Day' is much brighter for the most part. The instrumentation is more apparent, and Jabu cleans up the mix while still drenching the track in extended dub echoes and cascading reverbs. Introducing Memotone's clarinet removes the need for narrative structure through vocals and makes for a more conceptual offering. It feels like it seeps through this track, being the most sultry and free-flowing of the two.

Breaking down the work too much would be a disservice to the record. Although short, each cut sounds like movements to the same Symphony, articulating slightly differing understandings of the same space. The trucks perfectly contrast, showing two sides of the same coin, drawing you into something vast and needing to be explored.

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